Search results for " bone"
showing 10 items of 933 documents
Dietary freshwater reservoir effects and the radiocarbon ages of prehistoric human bones from Zvejnieki, Latvia
2016
Abstract Aquatic food resources (fish and molluscs) were exploited intensively at Riņņukalns, a Neolithic freshwater shell midden at the outlet of Lake Burtnieks, north-eastern Latvia. Stable isotope data (δ 15 N and δ 13 C) from a rich fishbone assemblage and a wide range of terrestrial species complement published results on faunal samples from the famous prehistoric cemetery and settlement at Zvejnieki, on the same lake. Stable isotope data show that freshwater food resources made substantial but varying contributions to human diets at Zvejnieki and Riņņukalns throughout the Mesolithic and Neolithic. Our research has also shown significant radiocarbon freshwater reservoir effects (FRE) i…
New results in ancient Maya rituals researches: The study of human painted bones fragments from Calakmul archaeological site (Mexico)
2020
Abstract The funeral chambers of the ancient city of Calakmul (Mexico) and the individuals who were buried in them have brought in recent decades new knowledge about the beliefs and funeral customs of the pre-Hispanic Maya. Tombs and bodies were prepared as part of the rituals that should favor the return of ch'ulel to the Underworld, known as Xibalba by the ancient Maya. The ch'ulel is one of the two anemic entities that inhabit the individual, equivalent to our concept of the soul. Bodies preparation included coloured scented body ointments application, with a deep symbolic connotation and probably also a conservative purpose. The aim of this research was to characterize pigments and bind…
Fires at Neumark-Nord 2, Germany: An analysis of fire proxies from a Last Interglacial Middle Palaeolithic basin site
2016
Few sites with evidence for fire use are known from the Last Interglacial in Europe. Hearth features are rarely preserved, probably as a result of post-depositional processes. The small postglacial basins (
El yacimiento calcolítico de Karea en el contexto de las cuevas sepulcrales de Gipuzkoa (País Vasco)
2018
En el yacimiento arqueológico de Karea (Aia, Gipuzkoa), integrado por las cavidades contiguas de Karea-A y Karea-B, se recuperaron numerosos restos cerámicos y faunísticos (Karea-A) y vestigios de una inhumación calcolítica (Karea-B). El presente trabajo se ha vertebrado en dos ejes. En primer lugar, el estudio de ambos depósitos mediante diferentes disciplinas: (1) estudio antropológico; (2) estudio del ajuar, compuesto por restos cerámicos y faunísticos; (3) identificación antracológica de los restos leñosos recuperados en el depósito funerario y por último, (4) estudios isotópicos que nos han permitido obtener datos de la alimentación (δ13C y δ15N) y procedencia (87Sr/86Sr) del sujeto in…
AMS DATING OF HUMAN BONE FROM COVA DE LA PASTORA: NEW EVIDENCE OF RITUAL CONTINUITY IN THE PREHISTORY OF EASTERN SPAIN
2010
We present the results of 10 AMS radiocarbon dates for Cova de la Pastora (Alcoi, Alicante), a burial cave attributed to the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic in eastern Spain. The direct dating of 10 human mandibles from Cova de la Pastora indicates that the cave was used as a burial place from the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age. These dates reveal a continuity of ritual use not previously identified at the site. This case also serves to highlight the utility of revisiting historic excavations and museum collections with modern techniques to shed new light on the prehistoric human record.
Lead in the Bones of Cows from a Medieval Pb-Ag Metallurgical Settlement: Bone Mineralization by Metalliferous Minerals
2021
Pb contents (13-53 mg kg−1) and pathological changes in almost complete cow skeletonsdiscovered in graves adjacent to Pb and Ag smelting furnaces active in the Silesian-Cracovian region, in the mid-12th century are reported in the article. In addition to Pb,elements such as Zn, Cd, Fe, Mn, Cd, and Ba characteristic of Zn-Pb-Ag ores in the regionwere identified. Bone fragments and the soil in which they had lain for almost 800 yearswere examined by SEM, EDS. XRD was used to identify minerals present in soils. Theenrichment of the bones with Zn, Pb, Fe, Mn, and Cd is associated with the remobilisationof elements from soil contaminated with primary and synthetic phase-rich metals. In bioticmat…
Needles made of human bones from Xochimilco
2018
Abstract This paper presents the study of needles made of long human bones (Homo sapiens) from the region of Xochimilco, now a quarter in Mexico City, which in pre-Hispanic times was one of the cities conquered by the Aztec empire. We shall discuss the development and use of these needles, as well as the identification of the raw material they are made of and a proposal about what people these bones were obtained from: captives or craftsmen's relatives? The archaeological household at San Pedro, in Xochimilco, presents in its early stages (12th century–15th century) stone technology, and in its final stages (16th century, around the time of arrival of the Spanish conquerors) the possible us…
A large temnospondyl humerus from the Rhaetian (Late Triassic) of Bonenburg (Westphalia, Germany) and its implications for temnospondyl extinction
2018
Temnospondyls are a group of basal tetrapods that existed from the Early Carboniferous to the Early Cretaceous. They were characteristic members of Permian and Triassic continental faunas around the globe. Only one clade, the Brachyopoidea (Brachyopidae and Chigutisauridae), is found as relics in the Jurassic of eastern Asia and the Cretaceous of Australia. The other Late Triassic clades, such as Plagiosauridae, Metoposauridae, and Cyclotsauridae, are generally believed to have gone extinct gradually before the end of the Triassic and putative Rhaetian records are stratigraphically poorly constrained. Temnospondyl humeri all show a similar morphological pattern, being stout, short, with wid…
Uneven Data Quality and the Earliest Occupation of Europe—the Case of Untermassfeld (Germany)
2017
AbstractThe database regarding the earliest occupation of Europe has increased significantly in quantity and quality of data points over the last two decades, mainly through the addition of new sites as a result of long-term systematic excavations and large-scale prospections of Early and early Middle Pleistocene exposures. The site distribution pattern suggests an ephemeral presence of hominins in the south of Europe from around one million years ago, with occasional short northward expansions along the western coastal areas when temperate conditions permitted. From around 600,000-700,000 years ago Acheulean artefacts appear in Europe and somewhat later hominin presence seems to pick up, w…
Characterization of recent marks produced on fossil bone surface during sullegic and trephic processes and their influence on taphonomic studies
2018
Different taphonomic processes throughout the history of a fossil assemblage may preserve, modify or destroy, particular palaeobiological traits, but these processes always increase taphonomic information of the past. Similarly, fossils are affected during later stages of taphonomic history, i.e. excavation, preparation, study and storage of fossils, known as sullegic and trephic phases. Tools used during excavation and preparation of fossils can damage them and produce marks on their surface. Some of these recent marks highly mimic taphonomic marks produced before excavation. Both modern and fossil marks lead to misinterpretations and erroneous conclusions when similarities are not clearly…